Preserved memories

This possibly my first? or one of my first pieces of sewing. A pattern darned hessian cushion made mumblety years ago when I was a fairly small child. The outer fabric was starting to fall apart, from UV degradation I suppose. Mum was just going to throw it out, then decided to save it so we could have a look at the stuffing together.

One can see through the holes that it was stuffed with fabric scraps, so we cut it open to discover what was there. All these fabrics are of course older than the cushion, dating back early into my childhood and before.

Here are all those scraps, split into possible keepers (green bucket, all cotton) and those definitely destined for the bin (mostly synthetics). I actually only took away a small handful culled from the cotton scraps. The fabrics were in pristine condition though. Crushed of course, but bright, crisp and not even musty. The benefits of a dry climate. Most of them are unused offcuts from garments made by Mum and her Mother. A few are from used clothing. We remembered many of the garments they were from, but some eluded us. It was fun, I’m glad she saved it for a spot of mutual reminiscing.

The few keepers will very likely turn up in some future patchwork.

Brew stocktake

I feel the Montjoye beer stocks are getting thin. So to help decide what next to brew, I’ve just been through the cupboards and done a stocktake. There is still a great deal of booze!

Beer:
13 PET bottles of Golden ale. This is 49 x 330ml serve equivalents. I’ll take this to parties and events in the prompt.
the rest are all in small glass bottles, 330ml or near that.
7 of Little Teapot stout- nice to drink in cold weather, and works well in a stew.
9 of Amiable Ale English mild- best drunk unchilled but I think this has gone too fizzy to take to parties now- like much of my brewing sadly
16 Twice Bitten dry amber lager. This has been very popular. I think it goes down better in hot weather, so this might sit for a while.
2 Free Falling pale ale (hopped with Cascade only, hence the name). Other people seem to like this. I think it’s a bit boring.
7 Festival ale (English best bitter)
6 golden ale. This was supposed to be pretty much the same as the one above, but I think there was a mix up with the grain. It turned out weak and I added “adjunct” to strengthen it
36 Merry Measure brown ale. I like it, it’s a lighter take on a brown. It wasn’t hugely popular at the CF tasting, some thought it sat between styles.
So 83 serves of beer in glass. Plus the PET makes 132 serves (plus the few bottles in the fridge, which I didn’t count)

Cider:
13  of the 2015 apricot cider- likely the most popular thing I’ve made yet.
55 or so of 2016 apricot cider not yet bottled.
36 mulberry cider. Really too dry to be pleasant to drink. It might develop. Works fine in cooking.
56 a full batch of the new ciderry
Which makes160 serves of cider.

Or 292 serves of booze, not counting the various macerated spirituous things in the pantry, or the bits and pieces of mead and fruit wine.

Writing this confirms that what I am short on is pale ale. So the next brew will be a pale, hopped with Citra, which I haven’t used yet but comes recommended by Rurik. I’ll see how that tastes, but I have only a precious couple bottles of my favourite- a Nelson Sauvin hopped beer (this one is a lager, but I prefer it done as a pale ale). So I’ll probably make one of those too.

I’d like to redo the brown ale that tasted AMAZING at 18mths old, and lay it down for… in 18mths time. This started out quite hoppy and sweet. The last bottle I drank had developed raisin flavours and was really smooth. Yum, I want more of that if I can manage it.

I’d also like to try something like the amber lager as an ale. I think that would land somewhere near a Little Creatures pale.

Well, that’s four brews planned, that’ll do for now.

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